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New Beginnings  by Gwynhyffar 6 Review(s)
Ivy-GreenReviewed Chapter: 1 on 7/7/2009
I know a lot of other people probably told you this, but this was really good! I loved your child's perspective. Poor little Thranduil! Anyway, well done!

Author Reply: Thank you Ivy-Green! It's been awhile since I did the story, so your review was a nice surprise.

I think kids tend to live in their own reality most of the time. Thranduil got pulled into a grown-up world when he was too small to understand it all. Poor little guy!

moonshine44 (ff.n)Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/24/2005
I was floored by this piece. The emotion and imagery in it was terrific. I`ve read about the battles of Menegroth, but getting a point of view from Thranduil, as a child living in the nightmare, was something I haven`t read. Great job! I can`t wait to read the next chapter!

Author Reply: Wow, thank you Moonshine. I'm glad you enjoyed the first chapter. There won't be too much detail about Menegroth since he was so young, but it seems to me that it would definitely be one of the things that made an early imprint and helped shape who Thranduil became when he grew up.

elliskaReviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/23/2005
How terrifying for little Thranduil! I definitely think of him as being young during the attacks on Menegroth as well. He is certainly my favorite elf so I am looking forward to seeing how you develop this. :-)

Author Reply: It's funny, I know where I want to get the story to, but some of the getting there is difficult without seeming cumbersome. Thranduil is my favourite elf too and I always thought of him as being very small when Menegroth was attacked. It seems like one of the early memories that would have shaped who he later is when he becomes the king.

Thanks for reading!

daw the minstrelReviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/23/2005
Nicely done. I'm curious about Thranduil's background. Tolkien tells us so little. Because the caverns were said to be like Menegroth, I've always thought he had lived there too. What a horrible experience.

Author Reply: Thank you, Daw. I like the idea of Thranduil being born in Menegroth and the attack by the sons of Feanor having a big impact on him in his life, as it naturally would. I didn't really go into it very much in the story, but in my mind as I was working on the first chapter I was thinking that he was too little to remember the dwarf attack and Thingol being killed - It was five years before the 2nd kinslaying - but that he did know about it because he heard about it so much that it was one of those false memories where you think you remember something but really you only think you know something because other people have told you about it so much that you have made up the memory in your mind. I am going to be messing with Tolkien's timeline in this story a little because he says that Oropher and Thranduil went to Greenwood early in the 2nd Age, but I am sending them there towards the end of the 1st Age. There is no mention of either of them in Sirion where Elwing and the others ended up for the 3rd Kinslaying, so I don't think I'm committing too grievous of a sin.

Thanks for reading and I'm glad you enjoyed the first part.

RedheredhReviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/23/2005
Very nice start. I like his naneth already and am looking forward to the next chapter.


Author Reply: Thank you for reading. I would imagine that his naneth was a strong person.. she would have to be to be married to Oropher and have Thranduil for a son!


French PonyReviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/23/2005
Very well done. I love the atmosphere, the sense of half-understood terror as seen by a child who doesn't understand anything but that his nana is terrified. I'd say more, but I'm about to get off work and will soon have to leave this computer, but I will certainly be keeping an eye on this one.

Author Reply: Thank you for reading and taking the time to review. I am finding it fun to write from a small child's point of view, but I am also finding it difficult. I try to imagine how my nieces or friend's kids would react and what they would say in certain situations and it seems to work alright that way. I think a lot of the time children see what's going on but because they don't fully understand it all they tend to focus on other things. Hopefully it seems realistic that way.

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